Lessons from My Dad

There are many things that go wrong everyday for thousands of people. I don’t think that we remember that often enough.

For instance, in the post office on Monday, the man in front of me seemed agitated and angry. He could barely stand still in line. A friend of his entered behind me and he greeted him. They exchanged two sentences and then the poor guy blurted: “My wife is divorcing me!” I cannot explain the pain, shock and weight I heard in his voice. How devastating to have the ONE person who CHOSE to be connected to you for life (better, worse, rich, poor, sick, or healthy) leave you. In that leaving they declare you unfit to deal with, they are unwilling to fight for you, and you are unworthy of their time/ life. I don’t know the circumstances between this particular man and his wife…but I connected with his pain. (Not that I have ever been married or divorced…ha! I haven’t even dated!) We are talking about emotional pain- THAT I understand.

I have been learning a lot about LOSS this month. There are so many different facets and levels to that single word: the loss of a dream, loss of a hope, financial loss, loss of weight, loss of pain, loss of life!

I’m sure there are more positive ones…but none come to mind at the immediate moment.

Currently the person who has experienced the most loss this month that I am aware of is my Dad. He has been a steady and almost perfect example of Christ in my life and as I have watched him these past four weeks- I have been amazed!

First, there was the wreck of one of his vehicles…my Mom and one of my sisters were in an accident that came just short of totaling the car…it cost $10,600 to fix it!

A week later, his Dad commits suicide- that alone would be enough to drive anyone down an insanely emotional period…but my calm and dependable Dad was a rock for his three siblings. (His Mom died two years ago.)

That same week he has to act as comforter to my cousin whose best friend drowns the day after my Grandad’s funeral. On the drive home from Arkansas, he and my Mom and a sister locked themselves out of the car for an hour…

The next week he acted as comforter to two families in the church who both lost family members to cancer. He also shells out another $400 to fix the AC…which broke while he was in Arkansas working on his Dad’s funeral arrangements.

On Father’s Day the truck died at church…and he and my Mom and a sister were stranded for a few hours. His lunch was delayed until almost 3pm! Then that evening, he took me to the phone store to cancel my phone which I lost the night before… It was such a memorable Father’s Day…

Lastly, today our water heater exploded in the attic and caused a LOT of water damage in three different places of our house- and he spent several hours cleaning up the damage and trying to do as much as he can before calling in the professionals.

Loss is something that I am learning about…but most of my lessons are through observation of my incredible Dad!

Happy Belated Father’s Day!